There is a very important lesson for Governor Inslee and lawmakers from last week’s court ruling invalidating Seattle’s income tax. In rejecting Seattle’s argument that its income tax is actually an excise tax, Judge Ruhl said you can’t redefine an income tax as an excise tax to get around legal restrictions. Judge Ruhl pointed to this prior […]

For this Cinderella story, the clock striking midnight was a good thing. With a tick of the clock to midnight on Sunday, Washington joined 42 other states with charter schools. Though we would have preferred to see Governor Inslee sign the bill (and provide those students that testified and rallied at legislature a bill ceremony) we […]

Just before I entered 3rd grade, my mother bought various items for my bedroom, including a bed spread, bookshelves, and a bean bag chair. She also purchased the item pictured here that surprisingly would shape the direction of my life – a waste paper basket. The metallic bin contained portraits of all the presidents and […]

Rob McKenna: In the 2012 campaign, I advocated for a revenue-neutral levy swap to help satisfy the McCleary decision. The idea of a levy swap was originally developed in the legislature by a House Democrat and a Senate Republican. Under a revenue-neutral levy swap, local property taxes would be lowered and state property taxes raised by an equal […]

The Legislature has passed the first new transportation funding package in a decade. Credit is due to Senate Transportation Committee Chair Curtis King (R-Yakima) and ranking member Steve Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens), House Transportation Committee Chair Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) and ranking member Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama) and other legislative leaders for being at the table for […]

Now that the 2014 election has been certified we know the official make up of the Legislature. Based on the responses to our supermajority for taxes legislative survey, we also know that the members of the Majority Coalition Caucus (MCC) in the Senate support allowing the voters to consider a constitutional amendment to put the […]

The state Supreme Court ruled in 2012’s McCleary case that the state is shirking its constitutional duty to adequately fund K-12 schools. Since then, the court has expressed its displeasure at the Legislature’s progress in correcting the problem by the court’s imposed 2018 deadline. Now the question is, what is the court going to do […]

Washington Policy Center On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Harris v. Quinn calling into question the forced unionization of some Washington residents. The decision at a minimum likely applies to home healthcare workers, family child care providers and language access providers(it may also impact others). The reason these three groups may be affected by the Harris v. […]

Call me naïve, but when the State Supreme Court issued an order in the McCleary case in January directing the legislature to adopt a “complete plan” showing how they intended to fund by 2018 the education plans they themselves have made, I wrote the following about the legislature: “unless they are willing to thumb their […]